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Peace not even a remote possibility

John Kerry, US Secretary of State, and the British Foreign Minister,William Hague have in the last days spoken about the so-called Two-State solution between Israel and Palestine having only a little while left before it's dead. Informed commentary will say that it has been dead for years. Just look at how Israel has done everything within its power - with the merest of tut-tutting by Western nations - to expand settlements (in reality towns) in the West Bank. An update, on MEMO (Middle East Monitor) on the on-going building.

"Saeb Erekat, member of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) Executive Committee, stated that the Israeli government "Continues to exercise the settlement policy on the occupied Palestinian territories."

During a meeting with the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, Erekat said: "The total number of Israeli settlements built on occupied Palestinian land after Benjamin Netanyahu came into office from 2009 to 2012 has reached over 16,000 settlement units. On average, this is 11 new settlement units a day."

He added that an increase of settler acts of violence against the Palestinians has been observed in the last few years, "At an alarming rate." He explained that the violent acts committed by settlers increased from 2009 to the end of 2012 by 315 per cent. Such acts include killing innocents and setting fire to trees, mosques, and churches, all of which are carried out under the protection of the Israeli army."

He also pointed out that "Since the appointment of the Minister of Defence, Moshe Ya'alon, last month, the Israeli settlers, along with the occupation army forces, started establishing road barriers in the West Bank."

Meanwhile, another dastardly and outrageous action by the Israelis - planting landmines, between 800,000 and a million, in the West Bank. Bear in mind that both Israel and the US resist banning them.

It has been hot in Sydney, Australia. Damn hot!.....and record-breaking. So, because of climate change? Yes, say the scientists.

"Southeastern Australia has suffered through a series of brutal heat waves over the past two months, with temperatures reaching a scorching 113 degrees Fahrenheit in some parts of the state of New South Wales.

“It was nothing short of awful,” said Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick, of the Climate Change Research Center at the University of New South Wales, in Sydney. “In Australia, we’re used to a little bit of heat. But this was at another level.”

So Dr. Perkins-Kirkpatrick, who studies climate extremes, did what comes naturally: She looked to see whether there was a link between the heat and human-driven climate change.

Her analysis, conducted with a loose-knit group of researchers called World Weather Attribution, was made public on Thursday. Their conclusion was that climate change made maximum temperatures like those seen in January and February at least…